Second Sight is delighted to announce the release of Compulsion, a compelling stylish thriller that sees two callous law students murder a young boy in cold blood to prove their intellectual superiority. This outstanding courtroom drama is directed by Richard Fleischer with élan, in a semi-documentary style and will be released for the first time ever on DVD on 20 September 2010.
Having been raised by wealthy, stuck-up families Artie Straus (Bradford Dillman) is a sadistic bully and Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) a timid introvert. The two college friends concoct the “perfect crime” the murder of a young boy, but their arrogance and conceit leads to their arrest. The inimitable Orson Welles plays the criminal defence lawyer, based on the famous Clarence Darrow, who takes on their almost impossible case.
Compulsion is a Meyer Levin book adaptation loosely based on the notorious 1924 murder trial of thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb and was nominated for a BAFTA and garnered the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for Stockwell, Dillman and Welles, as well as a Golden Palm nomination.
